


Drunk

by starrystarrytrouble



Category: Open Heart (Visual Novels)
Genre: Angst, Boss/Employee Relationship, Canon Compliant, Character Study, Drinking, Eventual Romance, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Idiots in Love, Late Night Conversations, Late at Night, Slow Burn, Slow Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-31
Updated: 2020-08-31
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:41:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26219539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starrystarrytrouble/pseuds/starrystarrytrouble
Summary: Ethan gets an unexpected text from MC after the Senator heist.Set right after OH2 chap 9, but before next Saturday’s new chapter.
Relationships: Ethan Ramsey/Main Character (Open Heart)
Kudos: 22





	Drunk

Ethan took off his glasses, put down the documents on the security arrangements for the Senator’s arrival, and turned off the lamp. The office was finally silent, his whole team had left and it was the first time he could focus.

His phone buzzed with a notification and while any other sound would have been an unwelcome interruption, there was only _one_ person who ever text him.

**_come home with me_ **

He looked at the words and did a double take. As his surprise subsided, every part of him fought back the desire to simply tap out ‘ok’ and hit send.

He knew she was at Donahue’s and couldn’t have sent the message sober. He replied and his phone buzzed again.

_How much have you had to drink?_

**_not enough_ **

**_i miss you_ **

_Eve._

**_don’t you miss me too?_ **

****

_You know it’s more complicated than that._

His phone went silent. He stared at it for a few moments longer, expecting a reply that didn’t come.

Even in her wildest moments, she wasn’t in the habit of propositioning him late at night. He hadn’t even really seen her too drunk before, he presumed that was something reserved solely for her friends. Standing up he paced around, fixated on his phone, hoping it would buzz again.

Kyra was front and centre of Eve’s mind, the whole situation so difficult and downright unfair that he felt compelled to do all he could to support her. Would it be so bad, if he complied with her request, and trusted her choices? It was the direction they were heading in, the impossibility of fighting things any further destroyed any other logical argument his mind could supply. And instantly, he discarded the idea.

He still needed to protect her. Whatever was going on between them could wait.

He typed out another reply and waited with all the patience of a man on the edge. 

_Eve?_

_Are you alright?_

His phone remained maddeningly silent.

_I’m coming to find you._

He grabbed his coat and headed out.

Donahue’s was packed and no-one even noticed the concerned look on his face as he stalked in and beelined straight to a table of residents at the back. Laughing raucously, half of them didn’t clock his presence, apart from Lahela who gave him his customary wink before looking confused as he realised the attending was actually headed _to_ their table.

Ethan tapped Sienna lightly on the shoulder and watched her stare up at him with absolute surprise.

“Dr Ramsey? Hey! I mean hi.”

“Dr Trinh, have you seen Dr Valentine? I need to speak to her urgently.”

Sienna’s eyes widened in concern and for a split second Ethan regretted his formal tone.

“Is it Kyra? Has something…?”

“No. Not at all. Ms Santana is still stable. This is about something else.”

Relief bloomed over her face and the tiniest smile sparkled in her eyes.

“Oh. OHHHH. Got it.”

Ethan sighed impatiently.

“Eve was here earlier but she went out for some air. About a half hour ago? I can call her for you?”

The smile in her eyes was now dancing all over her face and she could barely suppress her grin. Ethan resisted rolling his eyes.

“That won’t be necessary,” he turned to leave.

“Oh and Dr Ramsey?”

“Yes?”

“She’s kinda fragile right now. Be _gentle_ with her.”

Sienna emphasized the last sentence with a pointed look and he could’ve sworn she was grinning insanely as he turned away.

He looked around the busy bar for the last time. There were crowds of interns and residents on every table guzzling shots but there was no sign of inviting green eyes and dark hair.

He took out his phone and cursed the day he’d started texting her.

_Are you still at Donahue’s?_

This time the reply arrived instantly.

**_maybe_ **

_I’ve searched the bar and none of your friends have seen you for 30 minutes._

**_i’m hiding. i don’t want to see anyone_ **

_Rookie._

**_i’m not telling you if you’re only here to make me go home_ **

_I won’t. Promise._

**_eurgh fine i’m in the parking lot_ **

The night was crisp, the Boston air light and the moonlight danced off the asphalt as Ethan approached the lot by the back of Donahue’s. It was quiet, with the majority of the revellers still packed safely in the bar.

Ethan felt a wave of relief when he saw a familiar outline sitting on the pavement. Legs huddled in her arms, she was staring out onto the horizon and for a moment he paused just to watch her, an unusual tenderness creeping into him which he instinctively wanted to subdue immediately. Despite her texts, she looked completely cogent.

It made perfect sense that she came out here, the stillness a welcome relief from the chaos of the two hospitals they’d been in today. There was space to think. A full moon. Peace.

He walked up beside her and almost on cue, without turning, she spoke into the night.

“You didn’t have to come, you know.”

“You text me.”

“And you said no.” She smiled up at him, confirming that she wasn’t mad.

He perched down on the pavement next to her.

“Why is everything so _frustrating_ right now?”

“I would’ve thought you’d be celebrating your victory over Mass Kenmore. The Senator confirmed his transfer.”

“June told me. It’s something I guess.”

“And Kyra’s surgery, although it’s a difficult procedure, there’s still hope.”

“I know, Bryce talked me through it after we saw her. It still just feels like, I can’t explain it, Ethan…like everything is about to fall apart. It’s so stupid but I can’t shake the feeling that something bad is about to happen,” she shook her head, still staring out at the moon.

“Are you otherwise feeling okay?” he broached the subject as delicately as he could but she caught on immediately and gave a wry chuckle.

"You don't give up. Is that why you came, because you think I’m drunk?"

"I was concerned you might need help."

“I’m a big girl, Ethan. You didn’t have to come rescue me.”

She held out the glass bottle to him with triumph. "This is all I've had tonight. Try it."

He sniffed it and took a small swig. "Water? But your messages. They..."

"You thought I needed to be drunk to proposition you?" she laughed causing him to smirk. 

"Not at all. I know from experience that's not the case."

And there it was. Two minutes with her and he was saying the most absurd things.

When did they go from him painfully turning down her advances in spite of himself, to joking about it. This was another way she'd snuck past his defences, tiptoed in through a side gate and normalised things that a year ago seemed unthinkable. 

It was over. In this moment, he knew it at his very core.

The life he'd imagined for them, however fleetingly, was over. They were never to be mentor-mentee, boss-employee, never even colleagues again.

This was the Age of Eve. From contacting Gwyneth Monroe, chewing him out in front of the team over Leland Bloom, to today's escapade of breaking into Mass Kenmore, she called the shots and he let her. A few weeks ago he was persuaded to stalk his own mother. And after that, to play softball against colleagues he loathed. Everything was her. His life dictated by her rules, her terms and him utterly powerless, with no choice but to follow. 

The worst part was, he liked it.

She brought out that same spontaneous troublemaker who'd stolen a cadaver to impress Tobias or blown up his neighbours’ shed once upon a time. She saw who he really was despite everything he did to keep himself in check. Dug deeper and deeper until he’d surrendered his real self, one he pushed away and kept hidden from even himself.

He loved it. 

In him, she’d found a partner in crime. Someone who valued the same things: medicine and patient care, equality and fairness over money and politics. And that’s all she ever asked of him, all she seemed to want. _Him_.

"I was being serious." she was sincere now, looking straight at him with a weary smile, "At this point, I don't get why you'd still fight it. This, us, you know it's inevitable."

He did know and he'd stopped fighting it, really fighting it, the minute he first kissed her. He was foolish to ever think otherwise. Every resistance on his part since was sheer fantasy. 

With a trace of a nod, Ethan leaned over and captured her lips in a slow, tender kiss that caught her by surprise. He cupped her face and pulled her in further softly, parting her mouth with his tongue. She moved in closer with a gentle moan, pulling at his shirt collar urgently, as if he was about to disappear when they broke apart, and recognizing her intensity, he wrapped his arms around her in a wordless promise.

When they pulled apart her eyes fluttered open and he rubbed his thumb along her cheek as she smiled up at him. 

"Ethan, I…" she stopped abruptly when she caught sight of something familiar. 

"You've been wearing that since you got back from the Amazon. You didn't have it before then."

He met her gaze at his wrist and looked at the small wooden beaded bracelet. 

"You don't seem like a jewellery kinda guy so I figured there was some story to it. Should I be worried?" she pouted dramatically.

He shook his head lightly and smiled, "I should have guessed you would notice."

"Because I'm always staring at you?"

"No, Rookie. Because observation is an integral part of your job." 

"Riiiight. That." she looked at him in mock seriousness and started laughing. "Are you sure? Because I do always kinda stare at you."

He rolled his eyes on cue but didn’t bother to suppress the accompanying smile.

"So what's the deal? Are you going to tell me who gave you a friendship bracelet."

"It is not a 'friendship bracelet'"

His sudden sincerity set her off laughing again. "Because you don't have friends. Apart from me obviously."

He rolled his eyes. 

"If you must know, a patient in the Amazon gave it to me. A little boy, Miguel, he’d just turned 8. He was my first patient. I saw him on the day I arrived, we thought he wouldn’t make it through the next few hours, let alone the night.”

He shook his head with a small smile.

“He reminded me of you.”

“Me?”

“Stubborn. He refused to give up. He was sick for weeks, his life in threat every hour, his very existence in question and he didn’t stop believing that he would be okay. Not once.”

Eve played with the beads on his wrist as he spoke, interlacing her fingers with his.

“I didn’t think he’d make it. I could have sworn he wouldn’t, every bit of my medical experience told me to prepare myself. But he just kept fighting. And a week before I left, he was discharged.

"He came into the hospital on my last day and gave me the beads. He said while I wore it, I would always be close to the people I care about."

He remembered the glow on Miguel’s face when he produced it and told him it would keep him and his loved ones together forever.

Ethan was the last person to believe in superstition but nor had he taken it off since Miguel's small hands had snugly tied it onto his wrist. He didn't want to take any chances. 

He looked down at Eve's hand holding tightly onto his, her eyes gazing up at him in rapture. Maybe Miguel had been right. 

He stood up, his silhouette wrapped in moonlight against the rich blue night. Eve could never get tired of looking at him. 

"Come on, let's go." he said. 

Eve nodded, defeated. "I thought you said you weren't going to make me go home."

"I'm not." He reached out his hand and helped her up, pulling her close to him and securing his arms around her. 

"We're going to my place."


End file.
